Edubabble - what DO those words mean?
Every industry has its own "inside baseball" terminology and my industry, information technology, certainly has more than its own share of them. Listen to two or more folks who are well schooled in their industry and it is almost a sure bet that an outsider will be lost in just a little while.
Or worse, led astray - hearing something and taking it in a given direction, but finding out later that what you thought a word meant was way different than what you thought.
Well, your local educational system has its own. Normally, I'd say that's fine, but given today's high cost of education (did you know that we as a nation pretty much spend the same on education as we do the military?) and the effects on our kids, it is more and more important that we all understand what it means.
I looked at our local district's self-published "report card" and I would have to agree with much of what Jane said on the show this Sat. - edubabble!
Our friend Jorge sent along a "translation" that you may find helpful (emphasis mine):
or
“How to decipher what the Superintendent is saying at the Annual School District Meeting?”
(Condensed and adapted from the book The Schools We Need and Why We Don’t Have Them by Ed Hirsch, Jr.)
This critical guide to terms, phrases, and slogans widely used by the American educational community is conceived as a kind of typhoid-tetanus shot, a controlled dose of the pathogen in nontoxic form to inoculate those who become exposed. Prospective teachers and members of the general public are bemused, bullied, and sometimes infected by seductive rhetorical flourishes like “child-centered schooling” or bullying ones like the dismissive words “drill and kill.” These terms and phrases pretend to more soundness, humaneness, substance, and scientific authority than they in fact possess. Promulgating this system of rhetoric has been an ongoing function of American schools of education, whose uniformity of language and doctrine ensures that every captive of the teacher-certification process and every professor trained to continue the tradition is imbued with educationally correct phrases. Consensus-through-rhetoric has been one of the main instruments of the Toughtworld’s intellectual dominance.
As an example of this uniformity in teacher preparation, the authors of an education-school textbook called Best Practice claimed that a doctrinal consensus exists among the important educational organizations—including the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the Center for the Study of Reading, the National Writing Project, the National Council for the Social Studies, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Association for the education of Young Children, and the International Reading Association—regarding the best principles of pedagogy. These consensus principles were lauded as “child-centered,” “progressive,” “developmentally appropriate,” and “research-based.”
On the authority of this professional consensus, teachers were instructed to de-emphasize and deplore practices represented by bad words like “whole-class instruction,” “passive listening,” “textbooks,” “broad coverage,” “rote memorization of facts,” “competition,” “grades,” and “standardized tests.” Instead, they were to accentuate practices represented by good words like “hands-on learning,” “discovery learning,” “less is more,” “student responsibility,” “individual learning styles,” “cooperative learning,” and “non-standardized assessment.” None of this advice is sound. Yet, for any prospective teacher to whom the advice is presented so authoritatively and repeated so often, it would be reasonable to assume that it must be true. Repetition and consensus give the phrases a self-evident, not-to-be-questioned quality which induces those who repeat them to believe them earnestly and implicitly.
- Tool conception of education: “accessing skills,” “critical-thinking skills,” “higher-order skills,” “learning to learn,” “lifelong learning,” “metacognitive skills,” “problem-solving skills,” “promise of technology.”
- Romantic developmentalism: “at their own pace,” “child-centered schooling,” “developmentally appropriate,” “factory-model schools,” “individual differences,” “individualized instruction,” “individual learning styles,” “multiage classrooms,” “multiple intelligences,” “one-size-fits-all,” “student-centered education,” “teach the child, not the subject.”
- Naturalistic pedagogy: “Constructivism,” “cooperative learning,” “discovery learning,” “drill and kill,” “hands-on learning,” “holistic learning,” “learning by doing,” “open classroom.” “multiaged classroom,” “project method,” “rote learning,” “thematic learning,” “whole-class instruction,” “whole-language instruction.”
- Antipathy to subject-matter content: “banking theory of schooling,” “facts, inferior to understanding,” “facts are soon outdated,” “intellectual capital,” “less is more,” “mere facts,” “rote learning,” “textbook learning,” “transmission school of schooling,” “teaching for understanding.”
- Antipathy to testing and ranking: “authentic assessment,” “competition,” “exhibitions,” “performance-based assessment,” “portfolio assessment.”
So closely related are the topics mentioned under each of the above headings that the following Glossary will largely omit cross-references in order to avoid bombarding the reader with constantly repeated indications.
The family resemblances among these terms may be owing partly to a process of historical transformation. When a phrase like “learning by doing” becomes discredited, the principle may still live on in a protean transformation like “hands-on learning.” If the “open classroom” becomes a source of disillusion, it may be reborn as the “multiaged” classroom.
I hope the readers will find the Glossary helpful. What is valid in the old rhetoric should be left to flourish, but what is false should be dug up and exposed to common sense. Before Americans can cultivate new educational ideas, the ancient plot of ground must be weeded. Many people in recent years have expressed a sense that something is not quite right about these facile doctrines in all their various guises. For those persons, the following short commentaries are offered as reinforcements for their own insights and experiences.
Accessing Skills A phrase used to define an aspect of “learning to learn.” Accessing skills are currently emphasized in our schools on the grounds that today’s knowledge is changing so rapidly that it will be irrelevant tomorrow. It is better to learn to how to “access information” (i. e., how to look things up, or how to use a library or computer or spell-check program) than to learn a lot of soon-to-be-outmoded facts.
At Their Own Pace A phrase implying that children should develop naturally rather than being forced to learn too rapidly: also called “self-paced learning”. Going at one’s own pace would seem to be more natural than at someone else’s but there is no reliable evidence to support the idea of self-pacing. On the contrary, the data show that the imposition of externally set timelines, goals, and rewards greatly enhances achievement.
Authentic Assessment A laudatory term for “performance assessment,” where students receive grades for their performances on realistic tasks such as writing a letter, producing a play, and solving “real world” mathematics problems.
Banking Theory of Schooling A phrase rejecting the idea that adults transmit wisdom to students’ minds with important knowledge that will be useful in the future. Such knowledge, opponents of the banking theory say, merely indoctrinates students into accepting the social status quo. They recommend that the banking theory be replaced with “critical-thinking skills” which will develop independent-mindedness and lead to social justice.
Break the Mold Schools A phrase used by reformers of the 1980s and ‘90s to encourage school improvement. These changes have sometimes been beneficial. Other proposed changes, concerning the goals, contents and methods of education have turned out to be already-failed versions of progressive methods, which are now enhanced with “technology.”
Child-centered Schooling/Student-centered Schooling A self-description of progressive education, the idea is epitomized in the injunction “Teach the child, not the subject” It is based on the premise that subject-centered education focuses on subject matter while ignoring the feelings, interests, and individuality of the child. Lecture formats, passive listening, mindless drill, and rote learning for purely academic problems or aims have no intrinsic interest for children and is equivalent to inhumane and ineffective schooling.
Competition Progressive educational doctrine advises against graded tests because giving higher and lower grades destroys the spirit of cooperation and of egalitarianism, as well as causing students to work unproductively for grades rather than for the love of learning. It promotes failure…!
Constructivism The term implies that only constructed learning—knowledge which one finds out for one’s self—is truly integrated and understood. It is used by educators to sanction the practice of “self-paced learning” and “discovery learning”.
Cooperative Learning A term describing the pedagogical method of breaking up a class into teams of five or so students who cooperate to complete a joint task or project. When used with restraint, it can be an excellent method of instruction when used in conjunction with whole-class instruction. It is not effective when used as the principal or exclusive means of instruction.
Critical-thinking Skills A phrase that implies an ability to analyze ideas and solve problems while taking a sufficiently independent, “critical” stance toward authority to think things out for one’s self. It is counterpoise to the teaching of “mere facts.” This is absurd. Independent-mindedness is always predicated on relevant knowledge about the issue at hand, not merely giving one’s opinion.
Culturally-based Curriculum A term current since the 1980s when the male, European orientation of the school curriculum came under attack for the purpose of changing it to include the contributions of women and excluded ethnic groups. It is the predominant view today, which is not bad. It is the extremes to which this has been carried--Ebonics, for instance—that give it a bad name.
Culturally Biased Tests The claim that many standardized tests, such as the SATs, are culturally biased because of the fact that different cultural groups perform differently on the tests.
Developmentally Appropriate The idea that education is a natural unfolding, and that for each individual child there is a natural and best time for learning certain skills, thus, a desire to preserve childhood innocence from adult civilization.. The term is used to discourage schools from teaching certain subject too soon, but rarely, if ever, to suggest that subjects are not developmentally appropriate because they are being taught too late.
Discovery Learning A teaching method which sets up projects or problems so that students can discover knowledge for themselves through hands-on experience and problem solving rather than through textbooks and lectures.
Drill and Kill A disparaging description of the pedagogical tool of drill and practice to teach children skills. Supposedly, it kills the interest and joy children have in learning. Really??? How come it works in athletics..?
Exhibitions Another term for “performance-based assessments.”
Factory-model Schools The typical “traditional” school, producing cookie-cutter students who regurgitate facts under the direction of drill-and-kill instructors, supervised by a superintendent.
Facts Are Inferior To Understanding The hallmark of progressivism.
Facts Are Soon Outdated Phrased in various ways, this is the war chant of “modern educators.” However, they also shoot themselves in the foot because facts are central to “higher-order skills” and therefore need to be emphasized even (or especially) when the goal of education is seen to be the development of “understanding” and of “thinking skills.”
Hands-on Learning” A phrase that implies the superiority of direct, tactile, lifelike learning to indirect, verbal, rote memorization.
Higher-order Skills The term for the educational goal of producing students who can think and read critically, who can find information, who have mastered metacognitive strategies, and who know how to solve problems. Great goal with one serious problem Since higher-order skills are invariably and necessarily conjoined with a great deal of relevant, domain-specific information, there is no way to gain the “higher-order” skills without gaining the associated information.
Holistic Learning A term for classroom learning organized around integrated, lifelike problems and projects rather than around standard subject-matter disciplines.
Individual Differences A phrase reflecting the desire to combine mass schooling with respect for diversity and individuality.
Individualized Instruction An ideal in education that recognizes individual differences in talent, interest, and preparation.
Individual Learning Styles A term acknowledging the fact that different students learn in different ways. Used to promote small class sizes and individual attention to students, and as a nonjudgmental term for different levels of academic ability.
Intellectual Capital A term denoting the knowledge and skills a person possesses at a given moment. While attacked by educrats, it is in reality the main tool of future learning and earning since, as with money capital, the more knowledge and skills one has, the more one can readily acquire.
Learning by Doing An old term now replaced by “discovery learning” and “hands-on learning.”
Learning to Learn A theory based on the proverb “It is better to teach a child to fish than to give a child a fish.” In practice, it proposes that it is irrelevant to know the relationship of hook, line and sinker and how to use them to catch a fish as long as the child eventually catches a fish…!
Less Is More A term encouraging depth in learning rather than breadth in schooling.
Lifelong Learning A goal shared by all educators since antiquity.
Mere Facts The phrase used to describe an activity that compounds deadly pedagogy (i.e., rote memorization) with deadly content (i. e., mere facts.) Plain bunk!! Facts are absolutely necessary to understanding. Whether they are dead and fragmented depends upon teachers and students, not upon the facts themselves, which are not only required for understanding but sometimes immensely vital and interesting in their own right.
Metacognitive Skills A misused term that has a legitimate technical but an illegitimate nontechnical meaning. Technically, “metacognition” means a self-conscious awareness of one’s own procedures in performing skilled activities. The illegitimate, broader use of the term identifies it with “accessing skills”, “critical-thinking skills,” “problem solving skills,” and other expressions of the antiknowledge stance of educational progressivists.
Multiaged Classrooms A term referring to the grouping of children by proficiency rather than by age, with the result that children of different ages find themselves grouped together.
Multiple Intelligences A term meant to replace the concept of IQ ( a single general intelligence) with the theory of seven domains of ability under which almost every child can be good at something. The domains are linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal.
Multiple Learning Styles See “Individual Differences” and “Multiple Intelligences.”
One Size Fits All A phrase that disparages the idea of common learning goals for all children regardless of their interests and abilities. Implicitly advocates individualized instruction.
Open Classrooms A term for an ungraded classroom in which children of different ages can learn “at their own pace,” and receive individualized attention rather than follow in step with the class as a whole. Also, in architecture, no walls between classes.
Outcome-based Education A term describing a proposal by professional educators that schools pay relatively less attention to methods of schooling, such as “discovery learning,” and more attention to results. Advanced in response to public dissatisfaction with students’ test scores.
Passive Listening A phrase caricaturing “traditional” education, which makes children sit silently in rows in “factory-model schools,” passively listening to what the teacher has to say , then merely memorizing facts through “rote learning,” and finally “regurgitating” the facts verbatim.
Performance-based Assessment A form of assessment in which a student is graded for a unified production similar to one that he or she would be called upon to produce in the real world outside the classroom. The original term for what is called variously “authentic assessment,” “exhibitions,” and “portfolio assessment.”
Portfolio Assessment A version of performance-based assessment, where students preserve in a portfolio all or some of their production during the course of the semester or year and are graded, at the end of the time period, for the totality of their production. It is good for teaching writing and painting…but not much else!
Problem-solving Skills Used in conjunction with “higher-order skills” and “critical-thinking skills.” In the narrow sense, it refers to the ability to solve problems in mathematics and other specialized fields. In the broader sense, it refers to a general resourcefulness and skill that will enable the student to solve various future problems. Another good thought gone awry. There seems to exist no abstract, generalized, teachable ability to solve problems in a diversity of domains. Therefore, for schools to spend time teaching a general skill that does NOT exist is clearly a waste of resources.
Project Method Devised by W. H. Kilpatrick (1918), it proposes that subject-matter classrooms be abandoned in favor of “holistic,” lifelike projects that would enable students to gain the life skills they needed by working in cooperation with their fellow students. In practice, it abolishes the lecture-and-recitation format, tests, graders and drills.
Promise of Technology The phrase suggests that computers will revolutionize and transform schooling. Unfortunately, student scores have not significantly risen in schools that have been well supplied with computers. Among the reason: teachers have not mastered the beasts—computers, that is--, good software is slow in coming, the school has not become fully computerized, the students can not tell when they have reached their goal because they are expected to define their goals and they have no frame of reference to practically define those goals.
Research Has Shown… Used to preface and shore up educational claims, it is the battering ram used by educrats on citizens when everything else fails in a discussion, with the expectation that the listener will be left in awe of their erudition and dissuaded from “taking on the experts..!” Remember, just because it is in print does not make it right. Ask for proof and references…and check them!
Rote Learning Self explanatory, usually followed by “of mere facts.”
Self-esteem A term denoting a widely accepted psychological aim of education geared to the proposition that a positive sense of one’s self is of great value to achievement, happiness, and civility to others, whereas a negative sense of one’s self leads to low achievement, discontent, and social bitterness.
Student-centered Education A substitution of the word “student” in “child-centered education” in order to bring the concept to middle and high school years. It stresses the “humane” aspect of teaching a “child” at the expense of everything else.
Teaching for Understanding Contrasted with teaching “mere facts,” it is associated with the motto “Less is more.” It implies that depth of knowledge leads to understanding whereas breadth leads to superficiality and fragmentation.
Teach The Child, Not The Subject A term connoting the principle behind “child-centered schooling.”
Teach The Whole Child the third of the original three child-centered phrases of progressivism: “child-centered schooling,” “teach the child, not the subject,” and “teach the whole child.” All three terms enjoin the schools to take a more humane, less subject-matter-oriented position toward schooling.
Textbook Learning A term used to describe the “holistic” teaching of different matters across a common theme.
Transmission Theory of Schooling A derogatory term that implies that traditional schooling merely transmits an established social order by perpetuating its culture, knowledge, and values. It runs counter to our new self-made “critical and independent thinkers” who voice opinions but cannot support or defend them when challenged.
Whole-class Instruction A neutral description with negative connotations since it is understood to imply “lockstep,” “factory-model” education.
Whole-language Instruction An approach to the teaching of reading that emphasizes the joy of good literature and avoids drill-like instructions in letter sounds. It neglects phonics and phonemic awareness in favor of feel-good, no rules, no grammar, nothing-is-wrong approach toward self-esteem reinforcement. The main reason why children cannot read at grade level by the end of their first or second grade. A Special Needs engine…!
(RSA 186-C:2, DEFINITIONS)
Educationally Disabled Child means any person 3 years of age or older but less than 21 years of age who has been identified and evaluated by a school district according to the provisions of RSA 186-C:7 and determined to be mentally retarded, hearing impaired, speech or language impaired or both, visually impaired, seriously emotionally disturbed, orthopedically impaired, otherwise severely health impaired, deaf-blind, multi-disabled, traumatic brain injured, autistic, or as having specific learning disabilities, who, because of such impairment, needs special education or special education and educationally related services.
Developmental Delayed Child means a preschool child between 3 and 5 years of age who, because of impairments in development, needs special education or special education and educationally related services, may be identified as being developmentally delayed provided that such a child must first be determined to have an educationally disabling condition as defined in RSA 186-C:2,I.
Division means the Division of Educational Improvement, Department of Education.
Approved Program means a program of special education that has been approved by the state board of education and that is maintained by a school district, regional special education center, private organization or state institution for the benefit of educationally disabled children, and may include a home-based program.
Individualized Education Plan (IEP) means a written plan for the education of an educationally disabled child that has been developed by a school district in accordance with the rules adopted by the state board of education and that provides necessary special education or special education and educationally related services within an approved program.
Special Education means instruction specifically designed to meet the unique needs of an educationally disabled child.
Educationally Related Services means transportation and such developmental, corrective, and other supportive services as are specifically required by an individualized education plan to assist an educationally disabled child to benefit from special education. “Educationally related services” do not include medical services unless such services are necessary for purposes of diagnosis and evaluation.
